Buying Fruit - Got any tips for getting the best all year around?

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HomeEconHelp

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Joined
Dec 25, 2020
Messages
17
Homesteading/Country living experience: None.

Hi there,

I often find the quality of fruit varies in supermarkets. Sometimes I can get a naval orange which is incredibly sweet and then the next week the orange has almost no flavour. At the moment what I do is I look at where a item of fruit has come from and then google the growing season for that fruit. For example, if I see a mango is from mexico, I google "when is mango season in mexico?". However, I have found this approach still does not result in me consistently getting good fruit. Is there a better way to do this?

When looking at fruit, is it best to find fruits that are at the beginning of their ripened season? Middle? The end?

The kinds of fruit I like:

  1. Oranges
  2. Mangos
  3. Coconuts
  4. Grapes
  5. Pineapple
  6. Mandarins
  7. Avocados

I have recently bought mandarins and pineapples. I checked the country they were from and then confirmed they were "in season" for their country of origin. Unfortunately they both lacked flavour.

Any help would be appreciated.
 
Hi @HomeEconHelp, your question is a very complex one. The answer will be "it depends". It depends on 4 things, where you are, where the produce is grown, the shipping methods used to deliver it to you, and the shelf life of the produce.

If you are in the USA and are getting produce grown in the USA, the produce will be picked in the field, trucked to the packing house, and then it will either be shipped by rail or by truck to a distribution center near you (this step may happen more than once), where it is placed on a truck for delivery to your store. If you were getting CA lettuce in NY you can expect the food to travel close to 2,000 miles before it reaches the grocery store (between 3 and 5 days). The average distance food travels in the USA is 1,500 miles.

If you are in Europe you will have similar distribution chains but, the produce may be coming from North Africa so now you add a ship to the mix and an extra couple of days of travel time... This also happens when folks in the USA are buying food grown in South America (Mexico has connections to the US Rail Systems so they may not use ships)

Then there is the issue with shelf life, most soft skinned produce has a limited shelf life (less than a week). So to address this issue many growers actually pick their produce slightly "green" so it will be ripe by the time it hits the market. Packing houses often quick chill produce or seal them in containers with gasses that delay the ripening process. During the shipping process the temperature needs to be very tightly controlled, usually between 34 and 38F, if the temperature goes higher the food will rot in the container, if it goes lower it will freeze and not last long after unpacking...

Because of all these things you can be buying produce that has been frozen and is rock hard, but will turn to mush on the drive home or you could buy produce that has hidden rot just inside the bag.


I personally am very careful when buying fresh produce. My clues are different for different produce.

Oranges, including Mandarins - I look for deformations in the the surface of the fruit, I also smell the bag, if it smells sour it's a bad sign (practice and experience will refine your skills)

Grapes and Strawberries, look the fruit over very closely looking for any signs of mold or discoloration in the skin (wife prefers tasting one, but I find that rude)

Avocados, I feel them, if they are soft they are over ripe already. I prefer to buy mine a couple days before I need them and keep an eye on them to use them just as they soften up, refrigerating will delay the ripening process a little.

Melons and Cantaloupe, I am a long time "thumper", the sound from a gentle tap on the fruit will tell you lots and smelling will seal the deal. Again practice and experience will refine your skills.

I'm not a big Pineapple person, love the fruit but am happy with canned. But, when buying fresh look for discoloration near the cut end, usually bruising and age will show itself this way.

Mangos and Coconuts are out of my league, no help here.

My personal preference is to buy locally grown produce when possible, the less shipping the fresher fruit. I love Georgia Peaches, fresh Nectarines, and Plums in season.
 
Most of the fruit I like buying is not grown in New Zealand so will not be found in local markets.

I like mangos, pineapples, and coconuts.

The other thing is that even though we do have amazing grapes, avocado, and oranges here, in the off-season I need to buy them from other countries (e.g. the United States). So that is when understanding about what fruits are in season for which country becomes especially important.
 
HomeEconHelp said:
Most of the fruit I like buying is not grown in New Zealand so will not be found in local markets.

I like mangos, pineapples, and coconuts.

The other thing is that even though we do have amazing grapes, avocado, and oranges here, in the off-season I need to buy them from other countries (e.g. the United States). So that is when understanding about what fruits are in season for which country becomes especially important.
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In your case and in most other cases, unless you buy local from the farmer's market selling your local produce, seasons don't matter. You will be getting stored fruit from a warehouse.
 
Hey @HomeEconHelp, looking at your post I see that you are in New Zealand, so your seasons are upside down from the USA or EU for that matter. I imagine that everything being delivered to you is coming by ship, with the closest markets being in Australia, Japan, the Philippians, Vietnam, or China. Knowing how far they shipped the food to you will give you a hint to the age of the food when you get it.....

For cargo ships you can expect them to travel between 10 and 14 knots, plus 8 hours at each end for loading and unloading. So for most imported fruit (unless it is delivered by air) the food is at least 8 days old before you even get it. Looking at what is grown domestically there (I saw that everything I like is grown there), I would suggest you focus on locally grown soft skinned fruits..

Note: For all you post scanners out there who don't read closely, we are talking about if you are in NEW ZEALAND!!! @HomeEconHelp is 2500 miles Southeast of Australia! So don't get wrapped around the axle with USA thinking!

I ran into problems with this very topic last week:
Last Friday I bought fresh "Organic" strawberries to celebrate mother's day with the Wife (Sunday). I tasted one when I got home and it was great, on Sunday when I pulled them out for our treat the whole center of the package was gray fuzz, out of the whole package we only got 5 good berries.... When I looked at the package (it was an American Company) I noticed that in fine print is said product of MEXICO, so the product was at least 4 days old when I purchased it, I held it for 3 days. This means that the "fresh berries" were almost 8 days old by the time we got to them, Strawberries have a shelf life of 5 to 7 days, so we should have just eaten them on Friday to avoid the problem. So my advice is buy it and eat is asap. My wife can't stand over ripe bananas, but her doctor has told her that she needs to eat 1 a day due to her potassium deficiency. This has me buying green bananas every 3 days to avoid having tons of banana bread!
 
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